The Advocates for Human Rights, in partnership with Intermedia Arts, established a speakers bureau of immigrant artists who conduct presentations with schools, businesses, and other groups throughout the Twin Cities. Through their presentations, artists tell their stories, share their artwork, and facilitate dialogues on human rights issues. School groups may also request a longer partnership with an artist for a classroom art project or initiative.

The goals of the Moving Lives Speakers Bureau are to:

• Share the stories, experiences, and expertise of immigrants in Minnesota with other communities in order to build understanding and a greater sense of inter-cultural connectedness, and
• Increase understanding of the history and context of human rights by using art to explore human rights themes.

Moving Lives artists come from all over the world and include musicians, visual artists, and more. 

Meet some of the artists involved in Moving Lives:
 

Yawo Attivar is a native of Togo, West Africa. Yawo is on political asylum in the United States after fleeing his country in 1992. Yawo was the leader of a movement known in Lome as the “Mimi”, International Movement for International Music. He speaks to audiences about multiculturalism and human rights in Togo.

Lucy Smith learned what hate does to people as one of the “hidden” children of the Holocaust, who even as an adult survivor of the Holocaust was forced to keep her childhood memories hidden. Lucy is a painter and storyteller who speaks on anti-Semitism and multiculturalism.